FREE CREATURE FEATURES BEGIN

This week kicks off the start of Creature Features in Toronto,an open-air movie series with free admission.

Tuesday evenings, from June 27 to August 29 the fine folks running Yonge-Dundas Square bring you a new season of big, scary, sometimes ugly, always entertaining monster movies.

This Tuesday at 9 p.m. you can catch a rare 3-D screening of 1954's The Creature from the Black Lagoon (free glasses for the first 300 patrons). the series will run through a list of scary classics including The Blob, The Birds, Alien and Jaws. The series wraps with the (funny looking) recent Godzilla - Aug. 22 and Peter Jackson's version of King Kong — on Aug. 29. All shows are free.

And if all this wets your appetite for cool monster movies - the original Godzilla, aka Gojira, is being released this September - never before seen on DVD. Check out the website at www.godzillaondvd.com for more on this is classic version - the way it was before Hollywood stuck in those wacky Raymond Burr scenes. And be sure to check out the selection of classic flicks at Suspect this summer!

CURTAINS CLOSE ON TORONTO'S FESTIVAL CINEMAS

The Kingsway, the Royal, the Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles and the Paradise theatres are closing permanently on June 30, 2006. A sad summer for film buffs in this city.

The notice at www.festivalcinemas.com states: "It comes with much heartache that we announce that the Festival Cinemas will cease operations of The Revue, Kingsway and Royal theatres at the end of June. If you have any questions or concerns please contact 416-856-2044. It is because of your support we have been able to stay in business for almost 30 years, thank you."

One other Festival theatre – the Fox – will remain open for now. The fate of the buildings themselves is not known at present. The Royal, which has been designated as a Heritage Building, is presently up for sale while there is an online petition to save The Revue. If you go to "Save The Revue" at http://www.PetitionOnline.com/revue/ you'll see their plea -
"Toronto is about to lose a great cultural resource. Festival Cinemas is closing all of its five second-run theatres in less than a month. One of these theatres, located in the quickly developing neighbourhood of Roncesvalles Village, is a 95 year old landmark and the oldest continually running movie house left in Ontario. Please sign the petition ..."

The closing of these discount cinemas mean more to the city than just the loss of a cheap movie ticket, or a place to see older films on the big screen. Film fests, like Colin Geddes's Kung Fu Fridays, are now without a home. In Geddes' case it even puts his film collection in peril as there is no place to store his 500-plus reels of Hong Kong films.

You can read more on his blog here - kungfufridays.blogspot.com

According to the Cinema Treasures website email messages of support can be sent to: kingswaytheatre@yahoo.ca and revuecinema@sympatico.ca .

SEE US THIS (late) SUMMER !

Hey boils and ghouls!
All your pals and gals from the stores (well not ALL of us but a few of us anyway) will be at our not-to-be-missed booth at Rue Morgue's Festival of Fear this September 1-3, 2006. The annual frightfest will be, as always, at Toronto's Metro Convention Centre (255 Front Street West).
The Ghoul of Honour will be none other than Alice Cooper!
With special guests-among others: Guillermo Del Toro, Jeffery Combs, Linda Blair, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and a special friend of Suspect, author Gemma Files.
We'll have oodles of new stuff for sale-some things at special blow out prices!
Check out Rue Morgue's site for more info.
See you all there.

MOVIE TRAILERS AT GOOGLE!

If you like to check out the latest movie trailers online, like this YouTube preview of Paramount's NACHO LIBRE, there's now another source for you to get your fix:







Google has recently launched Google Video Movie Previews, a destination for audiences to watch trailers for films that are in theaters or coming soon. See it here!